Missed connection

[creadinger]

This didn’t affect me, but worth mentioning.

Dude, going up the middle between cyclists and peds on the MVT is inconsiderate and generally a jerk move, but at least on the trail there is room for others to bail out and get out of your way in most circumstances. Going up the middle on the 14th St bridge with 2 peds on your right and 2 CaBis oncoming is just a complete dick move. I know you feel awesome (and think you look awesome) and super fast in your Fresh Bikes kit, but you are none of those things. All you had to do was stop pedaling to give the CaBis enough time to clear the peds before you passed them. No braking required. Dick.

[jhr]

This wasn’t a missed connection with me, but I just saw a cyclist twice try to overtake the person front of him on the 14th st bridge in a particularly astounding fashion. The first time he nearly hit an oncoming cyclist; he still had the cyclist who had been ahead of him on his right but I think the oncoming cyclist saw him in time to slow down. The second time he actually did hit (or at least clipped) an oncoming cyclist, who had luckily just managed to swerve to the right enough not to collide head-on and barely keep control without crashing. It really looked like it could just as easily have turned into a possibly fatal three-way collision.

[83b]

To the guy in a wheelchair with no lights or reflectors going down the middle of the Penn Ave lane last night. Due to the high contrast from all the oncoming headlights and the chair being really low, I couldn’t see you until I was right on top of you. I was so tempted to say something horribly offensive, but maintained my Dirt.

[creadinger]

@jhr 68633 wrote:

This wasn’t a missed connection with me, but I just saw a cyclist twice try to overtake the person front of him on the 14th st bridge in a particularly astounding fashion. The first time he nearly hit an oncoming cyclist; he still had the cyclist who had been ahead of him on his right but I think the oncoming cyclist saw him in time to slow down. The second time he actually did hit (or at least clipped) an oncoming cyclist, who had luckily just managed to swerve to the right enough not to collide head-on and barely keep control without crashing. It really looked like it could just as easily have turned into a possibly fatal three-way collision.

Was this the evening commute? Starting at the 14th St bridge going to VA last evening it was a CAT 6 nightmare. Holy moly… I saw a few terrible passes, mostly by people who were red-lining themselves going 0.3 mph faster than the guy in front of them. It took them like 10 seconds to actually pass and in the meantime someone came the other direction making for an awkward situation.

[jhr]

@creadinger 68659 wrote:

Was this the evening commute? Starting at the 14th St bridge going to VA last evening it was a CAT 6 nightmare. Holy moly… I saw a few terrible passes, mostly by people who were red-lining themselves going 0.3 mph faster than the guy in front of them. It took them like 10 seconds to actually pass and in the meantime someone came the other direction making for an awkward situation.

Yeah it was the evening.

I’ve actually been been somewhat alarmed by dangerous passing during the busier evenings on the 14 st bridge for a month or two now. I was hoping that because of fewer recreational cyclists being out in the dark the traffic would be somewhat lighter, but unfortunately I suppose the dark more than makes up for that in terms of safety. The pedestrian/cyclist part of the bridge is really too narrow, and I wish they could expand it somehow, but after last night I sort of wish they would declare it a no-passing zone in the meantime, even if that meant I had to walk my bike across it behind pedestrians.

[jhr]

Oh, I have an actual missed connection to contribute:

You: Guy in a car on Columbia Pike who tried to start a conversation about cycling at a traffic light.
Me: Feeling slightly sick this morning and not wanting to chat. Sorry guy in a car. It’s nice to have someone in a car try to talk to you because they’re actually excited about cycling rather than because they’re a jerk and want you to get off the road.

[JimF22003]

Had a missed connection with EIGHT folks and one car last night at Hains point:

1) Eight people walking on the road in a straight line near the point, completely blocking both traffic lanes. As I slow-rolled up hoping the curtains would part, one of them yelled at me to “use my bell”… Huh?
2) On the backside just about 30 feet from the stop sign, some a$$hat driver swoops around to my left, and cuts right in front of me right where the left lane goes away, and right before the stop sign. Missed me by 5 feet at most, and immediately slowed down to roll through the stop sign.

[dasgeh]

A new one for me from last night:

Me: lawful cyclist, enjoying a beautiful ride home
You: pedicab operator, who I passed while you were waiting at the top of the hill on Madison, waiting for the light at 14th to turn green.

Lady, you had a couple options to turn right on 15th as I waited for the light at 15th to turn green so I could go straight. You could have slowed behind me. You could have pulled alongside my right hand side and turned right. You could have announced that you were going to ride along my lefthand side, go past me, and turn with your large pedicab inches in front of me. However, silently passing me and turning VERY CLOSE in front of me as the light turn green and I was biking straight was dumb. Upside, I almost got a free pedicab ride out of it.

[Terpfan]

@jhr 68687 wrote:

Oh, I have an actual missed connection to contribute:

You: Guy in a car on Columbia Pike who tried to start a conversation about cycling at a traffic light.
Me: Feeling slightly sick this morning and not wanting to chat. Sorry guy in a car. It’s nice to have someone in a car try to talk to you because they’re actually excited about cycling rather than because they’re a jerk and want you to get off the road.

Had almost the exaxt same experience Wednesday night on the way home as I metroed most of it due to coming down with a cold. I was just fortunate as soon as I mentioned the world cold that the convo ended: it’s like a zombie effect, everyone wants to stay away. Downside is I’ve been on injured reserve from biking. Boo.

[rcannon100]

ME: Not on my bike, looking at the stitches in my forearm

YOU: Happily riding your bike to work on a magnificent fall day.

ME: (Jealousy! Envy! Loathing! Hatred! Resentment!) 😡

[ShawnoftheDread]

@rcannon100 68772 wrote:

ME: Not on my bike, looking at the stitches in my forearm

YOU: Happily riding your bike to work on a magnificent fall day.

ME: (Jealousy! Envy! Loathing! Hatred! Resentment!) 😡

[Tim Kelley]

Be careful!

[UrbanEngineer]

Me: Taking the L-Street cycletrack home from work.
Taxi: Slowly merging into the mixing zone
Me: Slowing down to give room for the taxi to come on over.
You: Impatient driver coming in from behind who gunned it through the mixing zone coming within inches of both me and the taxi at a high rate of speed.

Shocked there was enough room for your vehicle to split that gap. More shocked that you thought that it was a good idea to do that. Sorry to the pedestrians on the sidewalk who heard the foul language. I’m usually more civilized than that.

[Dickie]

Bus#402 on Gallows road this morning passed me with about 8″ of clearance just at the section where the bike lane ends heading towards Dunn Loring….scared the poop out of me. He stopped up the road to board new passengers so I mentioned (very politely) to him how close him came….he was sincerely apologetic for his mistake and felt terrible for endangering me. He promised to be more careful in the future… all in all a pretty happy ending, other than the poop part!

[ShawnoftheDread]

@Tim Kelley 68774 wrote:

Be careful!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bn2ofZ84tZI

Dang, someone needs a mini tripod.

[Author]

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